I have a friend who recently shut down his ebay business, he had been doing it exclusively since 2000. I shut down mine around 2 years ago for similar reasons. After having a malicious "customer" (who hadnt actually bought anything, but envoked the DCMA over an item which was perfectly legal.) had his account shut down 3 times in 2 months over the same item (even though it was removed from listing the day he was requested to. He turned around and sued but in the meantime the same person has continued to complain and ebay has twice again suspended the account over the same incident months after it happened. This is a guy with over 20,000 feedback at a 99.9% rating. Whenever he has called to get things resolved they apparently dont leave notes for each other in their call system as it happens over and over again. In the meantime he has gone from over $12,000 a month and hardly ever a negative or even neutral feedback (yes he posts first) to a flood of bid retractions and unwarrented negative feedback from panicked buyers.
The de-emphysis of the E-bay stores they tried so hard to promote was the straw that broke the camels back, now when he lists an item it doesnt even show up in searches unless there are less than a certain number of "auctions" of the same item (or creative descrition that makes it appear to be the same item). Increased listing fees have been pushing the small sellers out the door and increased final value fees combined with the paypal double dipping have margins unreasonable.
The weird thing for me is that that ebay has changed alot like my local flea market what was once mostly yard sale items is now aisle after aisle of vendors selling the same cheap "new" crap like knockoff brand shoes, stereo gear and cheap electronics. Its getting harder and harder to find someone actually selling thier old stuff and Ebay suffers for it. Ebay is broken, excessive fees, rampant fraud and unfriendly business practices have made it very much a buyer beware environment and frankly its just not fun anymore.
Can you really blame them? The new contracts take away any monetary incentive that digital formats offered. What I dont get is Itunes delivers the tunes at their cost, the publishers have no packaging, promotion or media costs, so where does the money go? Maybe im a tin-foil hat type here, but it seems to me that the labels are just attempting their best to make sure that digital downloads are no incentive to the "artist" in order to keep their control over the industry. If it isnt cost effective, artists will stick with cd's and big labels as they see that as the only path to success. Too much success in digital format would show the artists that the labels were not needed in the modern age so from the labels perspective thats something best to avoid.
USA and SciFi seem to be worst about those stupid pop-ups. The really amusing ones are when they pop up to advertise the show you are already watching...I guess they are geared toward those with short term memory loss.
I had a laptop and 2 desktops stolen from my van in the parking lot next to the police station in downtown KC. One of my side windows as well as the windows of 3 other vehicles were broken out. The police department couldnt even be bothered to walk downstairs to file a report and told me I would need to phone it in, I called and the detective said I wasnt likely to get it back but he would get back to me. Later that night after I was home my work aim account logged itself online. I got the IP called the police department with the info, was called back the next day and reprimanded for "interfering in police work". Anyway I stopped interfering, 2 years later and I guess they are still busy doing "police work" because I have never heard back from them. I guess I learned my lesson, dont bother. Now when I have to be downtown I just leave the doors unlocked, its alot cheaper than replacing the windows. I've actually managed to make a game out of it, I no longer have to take old computers to the salvage place, I just load them in the van and take them downtown.
Most of the legislation today isnt introduced by parent aged politicians its grandparents. This is no different than politicians speaking out against rock & roll in the 50's or Long Hair on men in the 60's its basically just something that they arent familiar with and do not associate with other forms of media such as books, movies, etc. I have no problem with the ESRB in fact I think its a good idea, but until parents are responsible to buy into it, its not going to work. In the meantime the old folks who dont understand will raise a stink about the erosion of values and need for regulation. Its the same old story different generation.
If they were really wanting to beat down HP and Gateway they would address their customer service issues before they worried about switching processors.
Well I've owned and mostly still have just about every major console since the Atari 2600 (never bought a jaguar, lynx or a virtual boy) but im not in that big of a hurry. 99% of the friends I know that camp out for a first day console or overpay if they dont get one are pirates more than gamers. The first versions are usually the most hackable from their experinece. Very few of the even bother to play a game more than a few minutes.
Im a game junkie but have never bothered to pre-order any console. I did happen to be at a walmart in a small town near me the day after the 360 launch and picked up a premium because I read about all the nuts paying stupid amounts of money for them. I turned it around for several hundred more than I paid within a half an hour of posting it. I still havent bothered to buy one for myself, its just not a high priority. I'm planning on getting a Wii as well, but will probably buy one after the initial hype has died down.
Portable On Demand Storage (pods.com) has been around since 1998 Line 6 has been selling the pod since 1996 Personal Open Directory since the early 90's
Ipod since 2001
If I was Apple i'd be real careful with this strategy.
For me the only thing that worked was a bass guitar to the face. I had been picked on by the same person for several years, he never got in any trouble in fact I was usually the one sent to the principals office. My principal gave me a speech about how david (the bully) was going to successful because he was confident and assertive while I wasnt going to amount to anything since I was timid, undersized and geeky and that I had better learn to stick up for myself. A few days later David was at his usual crap and was kicking me as I was walking to band, so I turned around and without notice took a full swing with my bass guitar and smacked him across the face with it. He ended up with stitches and a nasty scar, I ended up with a weeks suspension (for doing what they told me to do) but in the end David never so much as looked in my direction again.
Evidently you definately live in a different environment than any I have lived in...where i live
1)Not yelling back Would have resulting in a quickier ass kicking since you were seen as easy prey.
2)Asking Johnny what was making him upset, and trying to rectify the situation Yea reason works so well with with 10 year olds, when I was a kid someone trying to get psycholological on you usually resulted in a fat lip.
3)Finding mommy and daddy before the situation got out of hand Would have made johnny run away for a bit then kick Billy's ass the next time he saw him for being a tattle-tail.
When I was that age there were only 2 things that worked, run away or hit back. The first was generally effective only that one time...the second usually stopped the bully for good unless the one being picked on was too weak to cause damage..in which case they stood and laughed while getting punched and stuffed the person in a trash can.
BTW where is that Billy guy...I could use a free beer.
Jack desperately wants to be this centuries Frederic Wertham, and doesnt seem to have any limits to how far he will stoop to get that recognition. The ESRB works if you let it, the problem is that many parents arent responsible enough to let it work. My local target has a good idea, they card everyone no matter how old you are. At first it seems like a bit of a hassle but if it makes a parent think for a second about what they are buying its a good thing. Too often parents have no idea what a game is about and just buy them because their kids wants it.
But remember since colombine its not about preventing bullying. Rather than getting at the root problem they keep with the old kids will be kids line and dismiss the bullies...but with johnny who gets beat up everyday we need to get him into counseling and ostracize him further just in case he goes postal one day.
Thats great news if true...and if the wifi connection works for connectivity between the devices we might really see some innovative use out of it. I always thought the idea was great on the gamecube but the extra cable required kept most from even trying it, few people using it ment little hype, little hype ment few developers thinking it was something they needed to add in. The end result was an innovative but very under-used feature.
Im kinda the same way...I guess im just an old fart but I remember back in the prodigy and compuserve days when you would download the game or get it on disk for free then pay a monthly charge to play it. Now they want you to pay the same price as a standalone game AND a monthly fee. I flat out refuse.
Is it possible that Wii games with DS link capablity will now be able to work out of the box. The GBA link idea was fun for some games but the need to buy a separate rather hard to find cable to enjoy it made it something that most dont even know they can do. Animal Crossing, Madden and Zelda all come to mind as ones that really enhanced the gaming experience.
Actually it was initially designed for the original playstation, then the gamecube, then the xbox and finally the 360. It seems they have a good business model of leaching from a console developer by singing a couple year exclusivity contract then producing nothing but tech demos. I really need to get in on that gig.
Concidering we are talking school owned computers and the academic community is supposed to be all about GPL, Open Source, etc...68% sounds to me like something isnt quite working out the way it should.
This game has been in "development hell" almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever (since 1999) and reeks of the same problems, everytime there is a snag they change engines or platforms. Silicon Knights would have been better off if they had stuck with Nintendo at least then they could ride some Wii hype for a bit. As it is they are a company of talented but evidently misguided developers who havent had a hit game since Blood Omen back in the 90's. You can only ride they hype for so long before no one cares anymore. I fully expect that by the "release date draws near, the hardware will be concidered underpowered and the platform will be changed to the PS4.
One of the big bullet points with apple users when talking about why they like the OSX more than Windows is that it runs Itunes so much better. I love my Ipod, but I run Itunes from a windows box and at least from the mac users perspective am missing out on the whole experience and my interface is just a bastardized version. I havent had any problems and find it rather intuitive but evidently I just dont know better. That being the case, I suppose there is room for an improved experience for those that are windows native.
I had entertained that idea myself for a while but after going to ones outside my immediate area but within driving distance one thing I observed was that while they all mostly started out great with good staff, top of the line machines, local advertising, a pleasant atmosphere and a good selection of games, within a year or so most are pits with low staffing, unkept facilities, outdated machines and poor selection of games. I dont know if their budgets run out, or if they just found that the majority didnt care about the latest and greatest so it wasnt worth the investment. One theory is that those that are hardcore games already have systems as good or better at home
I did find a few things I would do differently, for one I would like to see a bank of printers, scanners, etc so that during certain hours (maybe school hours and few after that, the machines could actually be used for study, business etc. I also thought of adding a gamestop type game exchange with maybe a points program for time rented and maybe tournaments and contests (monthly high score, etc). Another idea would be to have certain nights that are 18+ and special events on a monthly basis. For rental time I wanted to use a keycard system like gemstar to keep track of time and charges. I had also thought about working out an advertising/sales deal with a local vendor to help with equipment costs.
I wrote an entire business plan but then got a job offer I couldnt pass up and just kind of threw it aside for now. I belive "cyber cafe's" are viable here but they need more of a hook than just "PC's for rent".
When they can supplement the existing screens even the 320x320 ones with a built in projector, vga out or maybe an wearable headset then maybe i would concede that the computer is replaceable. Until then, watching video, organizing contacts, playing games and responding to email is alot easier on a PC.
My wife picked up a DSLite for me on our anniverary a few weeks ago. The difference is dramatic, the screen, the look and the overall feel of the device. She now has my old one, but I just cant hold the original anymore. Its got the sleek look of the Ipod or PSP that makes the old one look downright clunky.
Yep I rent on occasion but when they have that blue sticker clearance im a sucker for under $10 game, thats how I ended up with Grip Shift and the Silent Hill comic thing. I've picked up some good there too though, PSP Headbanger EarSubs (which sound awesome btw) and a couple of the better games.
Sorry if my inital post sounded trollish it really wasnt ment to be, its just that so far for me I havent found alot of quick games, most are ones you have to spend alot of time with. I think maybe the problem is Sony tried to hard to please the fanboys and stuff a console in a portable device rather than thinking of the portability first. The ability to flip the powerswitch and go into standby is great...if you know your going to get back to it again soon, but more times than not I do that and then end up coming back a week later to a totally dead battery.
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I have a friend who recently shut down his ebay business, he had been doing it exclusively since 2000. I shut down mine around 2 years ago for similar reasons. After having a malicious "customer" (who hadnt actually bought anything, but envoked the DCMA over an item which was perfectly legal.) had his account shut down 3 times in 2 months over the same item (even though it was removed from listing the day he was requested to. He turned around and sued but in the meantime the same person has continued to complain and ebay has twice again suspended the account over the same incident months after it happened. This is a guy with over 20,000 feedback at a 99.9% rating. Whenever he has called to get things resolved they apparently dont leave notes for each other in their call system as it happens over and over again. In the meantime he has gone from over $12,000 a month and hardly ever a negative or even neutral feedback (yes he posts first) to a flood of bid retractions and unwarrented negative feedback from panicked buyers.
The de-emphysis of the E-bay stores they tried so hard to promote was the straw that broke the camels back, now when he lists an item it doesnt even show up in searches unless there are less than a certain number of "auctions" of the same item (or creative descrition that makes it appear to be the same item). Increased listing fees have been pushing the small sellers out the door and increased final value fees combined with the paypal double dipping have margins unreasonable.
The weird thing for me is that that ebay has changed alot like my local flea market what was once mostly yard sale items is now aisle after aisle of vendors selling the same cheap "new" crap like knockoff brand shoes, stereo gear and cheap electronics. Its getting harder and harder to find someone actually selling thier old stuff and Ebay suffers for it. Ebay is broken, excessive fees, rampant fraud and unfriendly business practices have made it very much a buyer beware environment and frankly its just not fun anymore.
Can you really blame them? The new contracts take away any monetary incentive that digital formats offered. What I dont get is Itunes delivers the tunes at their cost, the publishers have no packaging, promotion or media costs, so where does the money go? Maybe im a tin-foil hat type here, but it seems to me that the labels are just attempting their best to make sure that digital downloads are no incentive to the "artist" in order to keep their control over the industry. If it isnt cost effective, artists will stick with cd's and big labels as they see that as the only path to success. Too much success in digital format would show the artists that the labels were not needed in the modern age so from the labels perspective thats something best to avoid.
USA and SciFi seem to be worst about those stupid pop-ups. The really amusing ones are when they pop up to advertise the show you are already watching...I guess they are geared toward those with short term memory loss.
I had a laptop and 2 desktops stolen from my van in the parking lot next to the police station in downtown KC. One of my side windows as well as the windows of 3 other vehicles were broken out. The police department couldnt even be bothered to walk downstairs to file a report and told me I would need to phone it in, I called and the detective said I wasnt likely to get it back but he would get back to me. Later that night after I was home my work aim account logged itself online. I got the IP called the police department with the info, was called back the next day and reprimanded for "interfering in police work". Anyway I stopped interfering, 2 years later and I guess they are still busy doing "police work" because I have never heard back from them. I guess I learned my lesson, dont bother. Now when I have to be downtown I just leave the doors unlocked, its alot cheaper than replacing the windows. I've actually managed to make a game out of it, I no longer have to take old computers to the salvage place, I just load them in the van and take them downtown.
Most of the legislation today isnt introduced by parent aged politicians its grandparents. This is no different than politicians speaking out against rock & roll in the 50's or Long Hair on men in the 60's its basically just something that they arent familiar with and do not associate with other forms of media such as books, movies, etc. I have no problem with the ESRB in fact I think its a good idea, but until parents are responsible to buy into it, its not going to work. In the meantime the old folks who dont understand will raise a stink about the erosion of values and need for regulation. Its the same old story different generation.
If they were really wanting to beat down HP and Gateway they would address their customer service issues before they worried about switching processors.
Well I've owned and mostly still have just about every major console since the Atari 2600 (never bought a jaguar, lynx or a virtual boy) but im not in that big of a hurry. 99% of the friends I know that camp out for a first day console or overpay if they dont get one are pirates more than gamers. The first versions are usually the most hackable from their experinece. Very few of the even bother to play a game more than a few minutes.
Im a game junkie but have never bothered to pre-order any console. I did happen to be at a walmart in a small town near me the day after the 360 launch and picked up a premium because I read about all the nuts paying stupid amounts of money for them. I turned it around for several hundred more than I paid within a half an hour of posting it. I still havent bothered to buy one for myself, its just not a high priority. I'm planning on getting a Wii as well, but will probably buy one after the initial hype has died down.
Portable On Demand Storage (pods.com) has been around since 1998
Line 6 has been selling the pod since 1996
Personal Open Directory since the early 90's
Ipod since 2001
If I was Apple i'd be real careful with this strategy.
For me the only thing that worked was a bass guitar to the face. I had been picked on by the same person for several years, he never got in any trouble in fact I was usually the one sent to the principals office. My principal gave me a speech about how david (the bully) was going to successful because he was confident and assertive while I wasnt going to amount to anything since I was timid, undersized and geeky and that I had better learn to stick up for myself. A few days later David was at his usual crap and was kicking me as I was walking to band, so I turned around and without notice took a full swing with my bass guitar and smacked him across the face with it. He ended up with stitches and a nasty scar, I ended up with a weeks suspension (for doing what they told me to do) but in the end David never so much as looked in my direction again.
Evidently you definately live in a different environment than any I have lived in...where i live
1)Not yelling back
Would have resulting in a quickier ass kicking since you were seen as easy prey.
2)Asking Johnny what was making him upset, and trying to rectify the situation
Yea reason works so well with with 10 year olds, when I was a kid someone trying to get psycholological on you usually resulted in a fat lip.
3)Finding mommy and daddy before the situation got out of hand
Would have made johnny run away for a bit then kick Billy's ass the next time he saw him for being a tattle-tail.
When I was that age there were only 2 things that worked, run away or hit back. The first was generally effective only that one time...the second usually stopped the bully for good unless the one being picked on was too weak to cause damage..in which case they stood and laughed while getting punched and stuffed the person in a trash can.
BTW where is that Billy guy...I could use a free beer.
Jack desperately wants to be this centuries Frederic Wertham, and doesnt seem to have any limits to how far he will stoop to get that recognition. The ESRB works if you let it, the problem is that many parents arent responsible enough to let it work. My local target has a good idea, they card everyone no matter how old you are. At first it seems like a bit of a hassle but if it makes a parent think for a second about what they are buying its a good thing. Too often parents have no idea what a game is about and just buy them because their kids wants it.
But remember since colombine its not about preventing bullying. Rather than getting at the root problem they keep with the old kids will be kids line and dismiss the bullies...but with johnny who gets beat up everyday we need to get him into counseling and ostracize him further just in case he goes postal one day.
Thats great news if true...and if the wifi connection works for connectivity between the devices we might really see some innovative use out of it. I always thought the idea was great on the gamecube but the extra cable required kept most from even trying it, few people using it ment little hype, little hype ment few developers thinking it was something they needed to add in. The end result was an innovative but very under-used feature.
Im kinda the same way...I guess im just an old fart but I remember back in the prodigy and compuserve days when you would download the game or get it on disk for free then pay a monthly charge to play it. Now they want you to pay the same price as a standalone game AND a monthly fee. I flat out refuse.
Is it possible that Wii games with DS link capablity will now be able to work out of the box. The GBA link idea was fun for some games but the need to buy a separate rather hard to find cable to enjoy it made it something that most dont even know they can do. Animal Crossing, Madden and Zelda all come to mind as ones that really enhanced the gaming experience.
Actually it was initially designed for the original playstation, then the gamecube, then the xbox and finally the 360. It seems they have a good business model of leaching from a console developer by singing a couple year exclusivity contract then producing nothing but tech demos. I really need to get in on that gig.
A more detailed write up about their history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Human
Concidering we are talking school owned computers and the academic community is supposed to be all about GPL, Open Source, etc...68% sounds to me like something isnt quite working out the way it should.
This game has been in "development hell" almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever (since 1999) and reeks of the same problems, everytime there is a snag they change engines or platforms. Silicon Knights would have been better off if they had stuck with Nintendo at least then they could ride some Wii hype for a bit. As it is they are a company of talented but evidently misguided developers who havent had a hit game since Blood Omen back in the 90's. You can only ride they hype for so long before no one cares anymore. I fully expect that by the "release date draws near, the hardware will be concidered underpowered and the platform will be changed to the PS4.
One of the big bullet points with apple users when talking about why they like the OSX more than Windows is that it runs Itunes so much better. I love my Ipod, but I run Itunes from a windows box and at least from the mac users perspective am missing out on the whole experience and my interface is just a bastardized version. I havent had any problems and find it rather intuitive but evidently I just dont know better. That being the case, I suppose there is room for an improved experience for those that are windows native.
I had entertained that idea myself for a while but after going to ones outside my immediate area but within driving distance one thing I observed was that while they all mostly started out great with good staff, top of the line machines, local advertising, a pleasant atmosphere and a good selection of games, within a year or so most are pits with low staffing, unkept facilities, outdated machines and poor selection of games. I dont know if their budgets run out, or if they just found that the majority didnt care about the latest and greatest so it wasnt worth the investment. One theory is that those that are hardcore games already have systems as good or better at home
I did find a few things I would do differently, for one I would like to see a bank of printers, scanners, etc so that during certain hours (maybe school hours and few after that, the machines could actually be used for study, business etc. I also thought of adding a gamestop type game exchange with maybe a points program for time rented and maybe tournaments and contests (monthly high score, etc). Another idea would be to have certain nights that are 18+ and special events on a monthly basis. For rental time I wanted to use a keycard system like gemstar to keep track of time and charges. I had also thought about working out an advertising/sales deal with a local vendor to help with equipment costs.
I wrote an entire business plan but then got a job offer I couldnt pass up and just kind of threw it aside for now. I belive "cyber cafe's" are viable here but they need more of a hook than just "PC's for rent".
That was exactly my inital point...though I was tagged a troll for it :)
When they can supplement the existing screens even the 320x320 ones with a built in projector, vga out or maybe an wearable headset then maybe i would concede that the computer is replaceable. Until then, watching video, organizing contacts, playing games and responding to email is alot easier on a PC.
My wife picked up a DSLite for me on our anniverary a few weeks ago. The difference is dramatic, the screen, the look and the overall feel of the device. She now has my old one, but I just cant hold the original anymore. Its got the sleek look of the Ipod or PSP that makes the old one look downright clunky.
Yep I rent on occasion but when they have that blue sticker clearance im a sucker for under $10 game, thats how I ended up with Grip Shift and the Silent Hill comic thing. I've picked up some good there too though, PSP Headbanger EarSubs (which sound awesome btw) and a couple of the better games.
Sorry if my inital post sounded trollish it really wasnt ment to be, its just that so far for me I havent found alot of quick games, most are ones you have to spend alot of time with. I think maybe the problem is Sony tried to hard to please the fanboys and stuff a console in a portable device rather than thinking of the portability first. The ability to flip the powerswitch and go into standby is great...if you know your going to get back to it again soon, but more times than not I do that and then end up coming back a week later to a totally dead battery.